Cape Kumukahi - PHOTOGRAPHER COMMENT

Cape Kumukahi: Talk about black and barren. The A'a lava is not that easy to walk on for too long, the surfaces are jagged and loose. nor is it easy to place a tripod to take pictures. However, I like this panorama for just such reasons. Challenging pictures of barren out-of-the-way places. A reminder of the power of volcanoes and that we are not always masters of the earth.

Cape Kumukahi - FURTHER INFORMATION

Panorama taken from Cape Kumukahi in the Puna District of Hawaii Island. This is a barren cape of black A'a lava, which is rocky, uneven and difficult to navigate. The area is windswept and descends to the sea with shallow cliffs. Cape Kumukahi was engulfed in lava during erruptions in 1960. The lava destroyed Kapoho and the lighthouse compound. However, as the lava approached the concrete base of the steel lighthouse tower the flow divided flowing around the tower but leaving it intact. Afterwards the lighthouse was fully automated and stand as the sole survivor in the midst of fields of A'a lava from a series of flows that had covered over 10 square kilometres and added two square kilometres of land to Hawaii Island. The lighthouse is not shown in this panoramic picture.